Newfound Memories
by LightningHunter
Summary: After Orochimaru mucks around with his seal in the Forest of Death, Naruto discovers another set of memories in his head. Memories that belonged to the Yondaime Hokage, Konoha's Yellow Flash, Namikaze Minato, and Naruto's father.
1. Identity Crisis

Yeah, yeah, I know I should be working on my other fics, but like so many fanfic authors, I constantly have ideas for stories. This fic was inspired mostly by jbern's The Lie I've Lived, but that's a Harry Potter fic.

* * *

Chapter I- Identity Crisis

Naruto stumbled groggily around the campsite, having been woken rather rudely by his "friends."

"What the hell's been going on?" he cursed, still blinking blearily, before he walked straight into Sakura.

'Kushina?' he said in his mind, before actually focusing. 'Nah, this isn't Kushina, this kid's got pink hair, not red...how the hell does some get pink hair? Wait, why am I calling Sakura-chan a kid?'

Naruto continued stumbling over his thoughts and feet. 'Who the hell is Kushina?' He wondered, trying to sort thousands of memories hurtling through his head.

"Naruto, what are you doing?" said Sakura impatiently. "Everyone's already gone."

"Who's gone?" said Naruto, resorting to physical measures, and smacking himself across the head. "This is weird..."

"Obviously, you're hitting yourself across the head, idiot!" said Sakura, smashing him into the ground.

"You know, I don't think hitting me to stop me hitting myself is a brilliant idea," mumbled Naruto, pulling himself out of a crater. "So, where's the bastard?"

Naruto was promptly smashed straight into the ground again. "Idiot! Don't call Sasuke that!"

"And? Would you prefer it if I called into question his gender preference?"

"Naruto, if you're saying what I think- wait, what?" said Sakura. "Did I hit you too hard or something?"

Naruto blinked. "You hit me the same as usual. I'm practically immune to them by now."

"There you go again!" said Sakura, before turning. "Sasuke, hurry!"

Presently, the Uchiha survivor reappeared. "What?" he said irritably.

"It's an imposter!" Sakura cried.

"Where!?" Naruto said, looking around, before noticing Sakura was pointing at him. "Hey, what the hell?"

"Hn...that's Naruto alright. Stop wasting my time, we've got to get a scroll," said Sasuke.

"See," said Naruto smugly. "It's blatantly obvious to the naked eye that you are the one who's in the wrong. Maybe you're the imposter."

Sasuke stopped. "That's an imposter."

"What? You can't turn around your words like that, you backstabbing bastard!"

"Since when did Naruto use words like "called into question", "gender preference", "practically immune," and "blatantly obvious"?!" demanded Sakura.

"What are you talking about?" said Naruto. "I've always talked like this."

"No you haven't," disagreed Sakura.

"...Who are you really?" said Sasuke.

Naruto sighed. "Guys seriously, I'm starting to get a little pissed off. First I get hit twice, now you think I'm an imposter."

"You hit him?" said Sasuke, turning to Sakura, who squirmed under his gaze, before nodding. "Then it can't be a genjutsu or Henge. Apparently the dead-last's learned how to use a proper vocabulary."

Sasuke and Sakura fully expected Naruto to rise up indignantly. What they didn't expect was Naruto to brush off his words.

"Whatever. So, you were saying something getting a scroll?" said Naruto.

Sasuke eyed Naruto suspiciously, before telling his teammates to get a move on, considering they had probably caused a big enough ruckus to bring every ninja in the entire forest.

The three shot through the treetops, Naruto still in a world of his own, having resumed his perusing of memories, only to be broken out of his trance-like state by Sakura's voice, the girl wondering whether Kakashi-sensei would be at the tower.

'Kakashi huh?' thought Naruto fondly, reminiscing on the kid, a particular memory flitting into his head. 'Wait...since when was Kakashi a kid? He's my sensei!'

Naruto almost slipped as he landed on a branch, but managed to cover up his mistake and continue. The boy then put the memories out of his mind, and did not think about them again till they had got a scroll from some team and eventually they reached the tower...

* * *

"Is there anyone who wishes to forfeit?" asked Hayate.

Naruto was aware of Sakura and Sasuke furiously whispering to another, but decided to stay out of it. To his surprise, Kabuto chose to forfeit, claiming he was too weak from his earlier skirmishes.

"Don't we get a lunch break?" said Naruto, raising his hand.

The Sandaime Hokage sighed. "Naruto, there are no lunch breaks."

"Well, some people are hungry," argued Naruto. "Those forms you had us sign before didn't say anything about dying of starvation."

Sarutobi's eyes widened as Anko handed him a copy of the form, and he quickly scanned through it, before realising Naruto had actually found a valid loophole. Reluctantly, he called for a table of food to be put up and gave all the genin ten minutes.

Naruto smirked to himself. 'Heh, they still leave too many loopholes in there forms, when I took the Chunnin exam- wait, what? I'm taking it now...' But Naruto still felt he had taken the exam before...and passed.

'Maybe I can see the future,' thought Naruto. 'Cool, that means I'll become a Chuunin!'

Happily dwelling on those thoughts, Naruto sat at a table, unzipping his jacket and leaving it on his chair as he quickly filled his plate. Chouji and Kiba (predictably) were already there eating, while the other genin looked irritated at a few people's indulgence.

But as the ten minutes began ticking away, more and more people joined them at the table.

"Ten minutes are over," said Sarutobi irritably, as the screen began flashing through names, and the table disappeared from view, leaving a few startled genin.

The first names shown was some Leaf genin on Kabuto's team and Sasuke, so Naruto went onto the balcony with the rest of his team. And Naruto gave a sigh in boredom as he leant on the railing.

* * *

"Hey, I get an easy fight!" said Naruto cheerfully, staring up at the screen that now stated: Uzumaki Naruto vs. Inuzuka Kiba.

Naruto jumped over the railing, landing on his feet, his knees bent. 'Strange, I never jump down like that...'

"Knock off that attitude, you don't stand a chance against me!" yelled Kiba, also jumping down, but landing more roughly, while Akamaru remained on his shoulder, jumping off as Kiba hit the ground.

"Hey, is that dog going to fight as well?" said Naruto.

"Me and Akamaru are a team!" shouted Kiba furiously.

"I was talking to Akamaru."

"You bastard! But don't worry, I'll go easy on you. I won't use Akamaru."

'Idiot,' thought Naruto. 'A shinobi must use all the advantages they have. Why the hell is he intentionally weakening himself? He's just lost the chance to become Chunnin...wait, what?'

"Begin!" said Hayate, with a cough.

"Tell ya what Naruto, I'll do you a favour. I'll knock you out with a single shot so you don't even feel any pain."

Naruto snorted. "He said "begin" Kiba, I'm not in the mood for to hear your battle tactics."

Kiba angrily activated his family jutsu, which Naruto carefully analysed.

'A basic Inuzuka family jutsu...essentially, it affects the body. As Kiba is now on four legs, it's relatively obvious he'll be faster, and most likely stronger. But the technique does have a drawback- if the user shoots out to attack, to "knock out with a single shot", it makes it hard to stop moving in a straight line, meaning a faster opponent can easily dodge...but I'm probably not faster, so it'll take careful timing- wait, how do I know all this?!'

"It's already over, Naruto!" shouted Kiba, before cannoning himself across the ground, his hand poised to strike...

'Now!' Naruto half-turned, avoiding Kiba's hand, and slammed his fist into the Inuzuka's face. As Kiba stumbled away, clutching his face, Naruto delivered a heavy kick to his chest, sending Kiba flying back.

'Wow, how did I know how to do that?' thought Naruto, before taking two kunai out of his pocket. 'I should really keep a kunai holster on the other side as well, seeing as I'm ambidextrous...wait, I'm right-handed!'

Regardless of the many conflicting thoughts, Naruto took a kunai in each hand, giving both a twirl on his fingers, before taking a stance he had never used before...but he felt like he had.

And then when he thought he had never used it, a memory flickered across his eye, him taking a stance, white coat swaying in the breeze, twirling two three-pronged kunai.

'What the hell?' wondered Naruto, before snapping out of it and watching Kiba climb to his feet.

"You got lucky with that one!" Kiba was even more infuriated, something else Naruto noted.

'Dogs are rather emotional...but this anger means Kiba will be less focused...so there's an advantage.'

Kiba shot forwards a second time, but this time Naruto ducked under the blow, before spinning around, his hands forming seals. "Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu!"

The Inuzuka only turned around and froze as a great fireball smashed into him.

Eventually, the smoke and flames settle, revealing a very charred Kiba lying on the floor.

Naruto scratched the back of his head nervously. "You okay? I tried to hold it back a little-" Naruto stopped himself as he realised that he had just used a jutsu he had never even practised before- he didn't even know the seals for it!

"Winner –cough-, Uzumaki Naruto!" declared Hayate, before calling on the med-ninja to tend to Kiba.

'Wait, that's not my name-' Naruto froze. Of course that was his name. But then, why did he think it wasn't?

"Naruto, hurry up! The next match is going to begin!" shouted Sakura, as the screen began flashing through names.

* * *

'Who am I?' said Naruto, trying to focus on these foreign memories. 'I am Uzumaki Naruto, aren't I?' More memories flowed through Naruto's mind, and he tried to grab onto them, trying to find names.

A day had passed since the preliminaries. Naruto was at his home, frantically trying to make sense of his newfound memories.

Names began falling into his clutches, yet he could tell that it was not his name. Uzumaki Kushina. Hatake Kakashi. Uchiha Obito. Jiraiya-sensei...

And then as he came across the name, Namikaze Minato, another memory flashed through his head.

_"Come on, don't say that," said Minato. "I thought it was great!"_

_The white-haired man –no, Jiraiya-sensei looked surprised._

_"Each chapter really seems like a page out of your own life, sensei. It's almost like an autobiography."_

_"Yeah, but," Jiraiya looked embarrassed by the praise. "It didn't sell at all...Maybe I should try and "sex up" the sequel a little...that's my real forte after all."_

_Minato looked back at the book. "The way the protagonist refused to give up, even at the end...that was really cool. He's just like you, sensei."_

_"Heheh...you think so?" said Jiraiya, grinning._

_"Actually, I was thinking..." began Minato._

_"Hm?" _

_"We want to raise our child...to be a shinobi like the one in your book!" said Minato, as he put the book back on the table. "That's why we've decided to name him after the main character in your book. What do you think?"_

_Jiraiya looked shocked. "A-Are you sure about this? It's just a random name I came up with while eating some ramen..."_

_"Naruto," said an angelic voice behind Minato. An attractive red-haired woman approached. "It's a beautiful name."_

_"Kushina..." Jiraiya still looked stunned, before he chuckled. "Hahahah...if I name him, that makes me his godfather, right? Are you sure you want that on your heads?_

_"Absolutely!" said Minato. "You're a man with true skill...an example we should all follow. I can't think of a finer shinobi than you..."_

The memory ended, and as Naruto realised he had been viewing from Minato's point of view, he came to a few conclusions. Uzumaki Kushina...was his mother. And whoever Namikaze Minato was...he was his father. But how the hell did he get his memories?

Naruto tried to concentrate, and strangely enough, that had gotten easier recently. Naruto had always found it hard to concentrate, but he had got better at it...since he had his father's memories.

He picked one of the most recent memories he could find. Naruto had no idea how he knew it was more recent, he just _did_.

_"I swear...to protect Konoha with my life!" said Minato, raising a certain hat in the air._

Naruto's eyes widened. That was a hat he had dreamed of wearing. The Hokage's ceremonial hat. But...there was only one Hokage that resembled Naruto.

The boy's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he promptly passed out, his last thoughts being: "I'm the son of the Yondaime Hokage, and I've got his memories..."

* * *

Fortunately, passing out was perfect for Naruto. For it gave time for his mind to sort out the memories, ordering them carefully, and steadily, bits of Minato's personality melded into Naruto's.

If Naruto was determined before, he was twice as now. Where Naruto was a hyperactive knucklehead, Minato had been calm and collected, something that built into Naruto's personality as well.

But most importantly, Minato's jutsu knowledge. Being a Hokage, he had known over a thousand different jutsu. Admittedly, Naruto knew how to perform them now, but everyone's chakra control was different, but fortunately, Naruto's chakra capacity was larger than the Yondaime's when he was Naruto's age, meaning maybe Naruto could afford to bleed out all that extra chakra.

But still, all this would take time. Maybe in a week or so, Naruto would have his personality mixed with the Yondaime's, and have full access to all his memories. Perhaps longer, for who could predict such a thing would even happen in the first place?

Naruto slept through the rest of the day, waking up at nine, feeling more fresh and alert than he had felt in weeks-

"Shit!" cursed Naruto, as he jumped out of bad, and saw his clock. "I spent an entire day sleeping!"

And he was now hungry.

Naruto changed out of his clothes, still wearing his usual jumpsuit, but leaving the jacket unzipped (one of Minato's tendencies). And Naruto could see why Minato did so, it felt sure as hell comfortable, and was probably good for you, fresh air and all that.

The blonde headed down to Ichiraku Ramen, where Ichiraku Teuchi was waiting at the counter for customers.

"Ah, Naruto! The usual?"

"Just a bowl of miso ramen," said Naruto, hopping onto a seat.

"J-Just one?" said Teuchi, stunned.

"...You okay?" said Naruto, but Teuchi waved it off, starting to prepare the bowl.

Thinking about it, that was most likely Minato's tendencies kicking in again. The man liked ramen- if he hadn't, Naruto would have disowned him as a father- but he didn't eat loads of bowls at a sitting. Now, Kushina during her pregnancies, when she got cravings, it was mostly for ramen, and lots of it...

And Naruto almost fell out of his chair, as that triggered a memory of the occasion where Minato was successful in knocking Kushina up.

"Compliments of the house," said Teuchi, setting down a bowl of steaming ramen in front of Naruto. "Er...Naruto, something wrong?"

"I'm fine!" said Naruto quickly, starting to wolf down the ramen. Minato ate with more poise, but Naruto was too busy trying to blot out unwanted memories at the moment.

Ichiraku Ayame appeared, her hair visibly damp. "Father, you'll never believe this," she said irritably. "But I was at the bathhouse, when it turned out there was this creepy old pervert watching us!"

"...What?" said Naruto, looking up from his ramen, the vague description ringing a bell. "...Did this guy have long spiky white hair, strange head-gear and red face-paint? And an ugly outfit?"

"Yeah, that's right," said Ayame, before continuing her rant about perverts.

Naruto slurped down the rest of his ramen, and slapped down some money on the counter. "Thanks for the ramen, old man!" He said, as he left.

Ayame blinked as she looked at the single bowl of ramen. "...Did Naruto eat _only_ one bowl?"

Teuchi nodded fearfully. "I'm scared as well."

Ayame uttered a silent prayer. It appeared the end was nigh.

* * *

Jiraiya giggled. The women had thought they had beaten him into a pulp, but he was back in a flash, ready to watch them through this hole in the fence.

"What do we have here?" said a voice behind him, and Jiraiya turned in an instant, his hands ready to cover his face (or somewhere else) in case it was a woman.

To his surprise, it was a short blonde boy.

"Heh...you should give me a good reason why I shouldn't kick you over the fence right now," said Naruto.

"Brat, get lost!" hissed Jiraiya furiously. "I'll give you a signed copy of Icha Icha Paradise later, get outta here!"

Naruto grinned. "Sorry, old man-"

"Have some respect for your elders, brat! Do you know that I am-"

"The Legendary Toad Sage, Jiraiya of the Sannin?" interrupted Naruto. "Yeah, I know. That's why I need you to train me."

Jiraiya snorted. "I'm not going to be training any brat-"

"Hey, you're speaking to a future Hokage," said Naruto. "It's Uzumaki Naruto."

That was it, Naruto knew. Now the man knew his name, and he would undoubtedly realise that he was the son of the Yondaime, and that he should train-

"Get lost kid, I'm busy."

Naruto narrowed his eyes. Now that was too far. He was on the verge of kicking Jiraiya over the wall, when Naruto decided to use his brains- once again, one of Minato's tendencies.

"A shame. I'd love to be trained by the famed Toad Hermit."

"A lot of people do, if you're going to stay, find your own gap in the fence."

Naruto carried on, ignoring Jiraiya's words. "I mean, you're a man with true skill, an example all shinobi should follow... I can't think of a finer shinobi than you."

That stopped Jiraiya dead, before he turned around slowly. "W-What?" He said, looking at Naruto as if he hadn't seen him properly the first time.

Naruto mimicked one of Minato's smiles for a moment, before turning away. "Well, too bad. Guess I'll see you round-"

And as Naruto heard Jiraiya's voice telling him to stop, he grinned.

* * *

"Right, so this is a fairly basic chakra-control exercise. Water-walking," instructed Jiraiya. "Start at the shallow end, before going on to the deeper. If you've mastered the tree-walking, this should be basic."

Naruto stepped cautiously onto the water, staying on for a second, before falling in.

Jiraiya burst out laughing as Naruto emerged soaking wet from the lake. "Heh, I knew I wouldn't regret this! Classic entertainment!"

'That's funny,' thought Naruto as he climbed out of the lake. 'I should've been able to do that...thinking about that, my chakra has been a little weird since the forest- damn! I forgot all about Orochimaru hitting me with his purple flames- a Five Element Seal!' He thought, correctly identifying it from Minato's memories. The man after all, had been an expert in fuinjutsu.

"Brat, what are you doing now?" said Jiraiya, as Naruto stripped to the waist (the upper layer, obviously).

"Look, sensei, firstly, my name is Naruto. Call me brat another time, and I'll call you something like...Ero-sennin. Secondly, a creep named Orochimaru hit me with a Five Elements Seal, and I think it's screwing up my chakra control."

"Orochimaru?" said Jiraiya. "Wait, how did you know it's a Five Elements Seal?" he asked/

Naruto mentally kicked himself, before lying. "Well, he did say "Five Elements Seal" as he hit me with it."

Jiraiya seemed to accept that, and approached Naruto as the Kyuubi's seal became visible, the Five Elements Seal also visible over it. "Here brat- Naruto, I'll get rid of it."

Within short moments, the seal was dispelled.

Naruto strolled onto the lake, calmly walking with ease. 'It must've been the Five Elements Seal that gave me Minato's memories. Good that taking it away didn't take away the memories...I suppose I've always had them, but the seal shook them loose."

"Hey, Naruto! Stop mucking around!" said Jiraiya. "Fine, I've decided to teach you a very specific jutsu."

'I hope it's Rasengan,' thought Naruto. 'I still know how to do it, and I need an excuse so people won't wonder why I know it...'

"I'm going to let you sign the Toad Summoning Contract!"

Naruto stopped for a moment, as he'd technically signed the contract once already. But he waved away any worries with a smile.

He couldn't wait to see Gamabunta again.

* * *

AN: I rushed over a lot of things in this chapter, but you know me, I hate going over every single little thing so I can make a chapter about eight pages longer.

The world of fanfics must remain in a delicate balance. Chapters must be long enough to provide a decent read, and if it is to be really fucking long, it better be damn fuckin' good.

A couple of things- yeah, Naruto doesn't seem entirely like Minato, but the melding of their personalities is more of a long-term thing, basically, it doesn't happen overnight.

As for the use of Japanese names, well, since I've started writing Metal Gear, which is all English, I figured I may as well make up for it and use all Japanese here.

Suppose I'd better put up a glossary...

Henge- Transform

Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu- Fire Element: Great Fireball Technique

Oh, and a couple more things. Firstly, Naruto won't learn Hiraishin for quite a while. We'll see why soon. Secondly, he won't be able to use Rasengan till Jiraiya "teaches him" how to do so (he'll probably master each step instantly on purpose).

Last, but not least, the dreaded question of pairings. Haven't decided, and it'll probably take a long while anyway. No, no harems either, because really, they'd never happen. Maybe for one night if a group got really hammered, but that won't happen.

Expect to see many things that are not similar to canon.


	2. Uzukaze Minruto

It's a short chapter, even shorter then last time, but otherwise I wouldn't have got it out before I went on holiday, and then I'd get death threats again.

LITENINHUNTRE OMG U NEVRE UPDATE OMG LOL I WLL K1LL U !!LOL!

That's mostly of what my email inbox is full of.

* * *

Chapter II- Uzukaze Minruto

"I believe that you can only use the Kyuubi's chakra in life-threatening situations," said Jiraiya. "But to use it effectively, you have to gain some control over it, and to do so, you must go into a life-threatening situation..."

Naruto took a step back. "Sensei, I don't like that look in your eye-"

"So far, you've been able to summon reasonably large toads...but this is your final test..."

Jiraiya dashed forwards, his speed being far superior to Naruto's, and pushed Naruto of the cliff. As Naruto toppled downwards, Jiraiya scratched his head nervously. 'Sorry...Yondaime,' he thought, not knowing just how ironic his statement was.

"Son of a-!" yelled Naruto, before channelling chakra into his hands and feet, and attempting to cling to the cliff face, only to slip. 'Shit, it's too slippery to use chakra...I need to summon something that'll be big enough to hold itself between the cliffs...'

One of the Yondaime's last memories suddenly replayed itself through Naruto's mind, the man standing proudly on the head of a gigantic toad, facing off against the monstrous Kyuubi no Yoko.

'Of course, Gamabunta...damn, my chakra level's too low to summon him anyway...I suppose now's the best time to see if I can use Kyuubi's chakra," Naruto concentrated on his seal, trying to drain chakra from it, only to realise that it was futile.

'Damn, to think I remained alive to die once more- damn it, I'm thinking like I'm the Yondaime again! Hell, did the real Naruto die that night and I'm the actual Yondaime?'

And for some reason as he continued on those thoughts, he blacked out...

* * *

Naruto opened his eyes. Firstly, he was in some kind of sewer. Secondly, he was taller.

He looked at himself in the reflection of the water that spilled around his feet. 'The hell...?' he thought. He looked a perfect cross between Naruto and Minato.

Naruto breathed in, concentrating on his surroundings. 'There's some kind of malevolent presence in the distance-'

His eyes snapped open with fear. 'Great, I'm in my mind. And I suppose because I see myself as both Naruto and Minato, I've turned into some cross-breed. I wonder if I should change my name to Uzumaki Minato. Or Uzukaze Minruto.'

The blonde continued through the dark passageways, approaching the malevolent presence that was undoubtedly Kyuubi. And as the tunnels disappeared behind him, he saw bars appear in front of him, with a seal placed over them.

Naruto wasn't scared- actually, yes he was. He was downright terrified. Sure, there was a seal locking Kyuubi away, but once the demon realised that he was a Naruto/Minato hybrid, he would probably be pissed to immense proportions.

Nervously, Naruto cleared his throat. "Kyuubi? You there?"

A red light appeared behind the bars, illuminating a massive fox, a twisted grin on its face, but that grin quickly faded as he saw Naruto.

"You!" Kyuubi roared, immediately stabbing his claws through the bars, trying to reach Naruto. "You weak worthless little monkey! You-" Kyuubi stopped his frenzy, glaring at Naruto. "No, you're not that so-called Yondaime Hokage. You're the boy..."

"Well-"

"Yet you are not the boy...' The Kyuubi's eyes flashed and the fox threw back its head and laughed. "Both of you? Merged? Or maybe something different..."

Naruto cleared his throat again. "Hey fox, considering we're falling off a cliff, how about you hand over some chakra. Think of it as rent."

The demon laughed again. "You amuse me...Minruto. Why should I help you?"

"Oh, well, let's think," said Naruto sarcastically, mockingly taking a thinking pose. "How about you'll live?"

Amused, the demon sent a surge of red chakra through the bars, which enveloped Naruto...

* * *

A pair of blue eyes opened, and Naruto bit his thumb and formed several seals.

Immediately, there was a great cloud of smoke in the gulf, and Naruto landed on the head of a gigantic toad.

The toad threw out its limbs, clinging between the cliff faces, and slowly looked up onto its head.

"What the- why the hell is there some blonde brat on my head?! Jiraiya, why the hell have you summoned me!?" bellowed Gamabunta.

Naruto laughed lightly. "There's a good reason to why there's "a blonde brat" on your head. I'm the latest to sign the Toad Contract."

Gamabunta roared with laughter. "Nice one kid! A little brat like you summoning me!"

"Hey, this isn't the first time you've been summoned to find "a blonde brat" on your head, is it, Gamabunta?" said Naruto.

Gamabunta's eyes rolled upwards, so they could see Naruto better. "Both your appearance and behaviour resembles the Yondaime. But, even if you are kin of his, I doubt that you'd still be able to summon me."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "If you truly are the same Gamabunta that was there when the Yondaime did his sealing, you should know why."

"Ah, so you're the Kyuubi kid..."

Meanwhile, back at the top of the cliff, Jiraiya was calmly watching the two. "Well, how about that. To think he was able to summon the full works."

And as Gamabunta leapt from the valley, Jiraiya panicked. He panicked even more when the huge toad landed in front of him.

"Jiraiya, what's the meaning of this?! Teaching someone to summon me by throwing him off a cliff?! I'll teach you a lesson that'll you'll remember to your dying day!"

"Oh boy..."

Naruto watched Jiraiya get brutally mauled by the gigantic toad, and sniggered. It looked just as funny the second time round, except Jiraiya hadn't thrown him of a cliff the first time.

* * *

"So br- Naruto, spill it," said Jiraiya, as he picked at his ramen moodily.

Naruto turned away from his lunch for a moment. "Spill what, sensei?" he asked innocently.

"Tell me just how you, some kid Gamabunta hadn't even known for a day got more respect from the old amphibian than what I've got from all the years I know him!" demanded Jiraiya.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, before remembering that Jiraiya was after all, the great Toad Sage, and this was probably quite an affront to his pride. "Well," began Naruto delicately, "I suppose I just won over the toad with my charming manners, my award-winning smile, and my glossy blonde hair," he said, running a hand through his hair for extra emphasis.

Jiraiya snorted. "Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

Naruto shrugged. "The Boss Toad reckoned I resembled the Yondaime."

"The only things you share in similarity to the Yondaime is your blonde hair and stubbornness," replied Jiraiya irritably.

Naruto arched an eyebrow, as if he was intrigued, before finishing his ramen. He handed the bowl over to Ayame, and said: "The old man will handle the bill."

And instantly, Naruto's hand shot out, catching Jiraiya as he tried to Kawarami away from the bill.

"Going somewhere?" smirked Naruto, but he soon stopped his smirking, realising how Uchiha-ish such an action would be.

Both disgruntled and annoyed, Jiraiya reluctantly forked over, before the two set off again.

"You know, Naruto," said Jiraiya. "All I've heard about you is that you're some dense loudmouth. But I haven't seen anything from you that could imply that's true."

Immediately, Naruto had thought of a response. "Well...sensei, we all have to just one day, you know, sort of have to get on with life, don't we? I mean, it seems so far that every real situation where I could've died, I won with luck. And that luck's going to run out one day."

Naruto looked up at the Hokage Mountain. "Sensei, I want- I'm going to become Hokage one day. And I'm not going to let someone kill me before I do."

Naruto inwardly congratulated himself. Minato after all, was the Hokage, and therefore a politician and any good politician needed to know the good old art of bullshitting. Pity the art never worked on Kushina. That woman, she could be so cruel sometimes- heck, even in the bedroom- Naruto cut off his thoughts.

It was the worst thing about thinking like your father and having his memories. Seeing your mother _that_ way...Naruto shuddered.

Jiraiya didn't answer, but was still contemplating Naruto's words. "I'll meet you outside the bathhouse tomorrow for your training," said the Toad Sage, before giving a little wave and Shunshin-ed away.

The blonde was left alone. It was still midday, and once again he found himself thinking. He was asking himself whether he should tell someone about his newfound memories. After all, even Naruto still found it hard to believe, despite all the memories that proved it.

The only candidates who could be contemplated were Jiraiya, Sarutobi, or maybe Kakashi.

Naruto imagined what it'd be like to tell them.

_"You with the Yondaime's memories?" Jiraiya would snort. "Yeah, good one."_

_"Naruto, this is why I told you not to eat ramen all the time," Kakashi would probably say._

_"..." Sarutobi would probably stare at him, before having a heart attack._

Naruto shuddered, realising just how likely those responses were. Well, it didn't matter. Maybe he'd just go home and reflect on some more of his old man's memories...

_

* * *

_

"Foolish student of mine!" exclaimed Jiraiya. "You just toss around your Hiraishin and Rasengan like they're nothing."

_"Sensei, sensei," said Minato. "It's part of a complex fighting style. If everyone thinks all I ever use is the Hiraishin and Rasengan, this'll enable me to keep a couple of trump cards hidden up my sleeves."_

_"You don't have a trump card," sneered Jiraiya._

_"Oh, yes I do. But something tells me you don't."_

_"I have a trump card!" yelled Jiraiya._

_"Says the man who is reliant on toads for everything!"_

_"You little -!"_

_"Besides, I have a proper trump card!"_

_"Prove it!"_

_"Fine, you show yours, I'll show mine!"_

_There was a sudden torrent of chakra in the training area as the two began to perform their most secret techniques._

_"Sage Mode!" yelled Jiraiya, starting up his senjutsu skills, absorbing natural energy from his surroundings, and taking on a more toad-like appearance, and two small elder toads appeared on his shoulders._

_Minato stopped. "Wow," he said, transfixed by Jiraiya's new appearance. "Hell, all I was going to do was a stealth ninjutsu attack!" _

_"Eh?" said one of the elder toads. "Jiraiya-chan, why did you summon us? You're not trying to show off again, are you?"_

_Minato had started circling Jiraiya. "It's a different kind of chakra...not just physical and mental energy. There's definitely another type of energy!"_

_Jiraiya looked nervous. Apparently, Minato wasn't going to leave him alone until he had learned about this._

_And quicker then someone could say "Hokage", Jiraiya was gone. _

_Minato blinked. "Hey, wait a minute! Wait!" He yelled, before disappearing in a yellow flash after the hermit. _

_

* * *

_

"No missions for us today," said Minato. "We can all have a day off."

_The three genin looked around at each other._

_"Day off?" they echoed._

_Minato scratched his head. "You know, a free day. No missions. Very short holiday."_

_"Sensei, what's a holiday?" asked Obito._

_Minato blinked. "You kids don't know what a holiday is?" Then, Minato remembered the three had grown up in times of war._

_"Well...how about we all-?"_

_"Talk it over lunch?" interrupted Kakashi._

_Minato deflated slightly. "Well, we could just go-"_

_"For a day outside the village?" interrupted Rin._

_"Or maybe-"_

_"Do some drills?" interrupted Obito._

_Minato was silent for a moment. "Maybe-"_

_"We should just relax for the day?" chorused the three genin._

_

* * *

_

"Aw, going on a picnic is so boring!" said Kushina, lying back on the grass.

_Minato shrugged. "And going out for ramen every single day isn't?"_

_A rock was thrown past his head. "I'll pretend I didn't hear that," said Kushina, but her voice was more playful rather than menacing._

_"Fine with me," replied Minato, his own grin on his face. "Why don't you just enjoy the scenery?"_

_"All there is a boring waterfall right over there-" Kushina froze for a moment._

_"What's the matter? Something wrong?" asked Minato, concerned, leaning over Kushina._

_Suddenly, he felt a hand grip the front end of his vest. "Kus-"_

_And a moment later, he was thrown through the air, heading towards the water. Fortunately, his training kicked in and he self-righted himself, channelling chakra into his feet and landing neatly on the water surface._

_Kushina climbed to her feet. "You're no fun!" she complained, seeing Minato not soaking wet._

_"Really? How about this?" said Minato, disappearing in a yellow flash, reappearing behind Kushina (using the three-pronged kunai he made sure she was always carrying) and throwing her into the water- and Kushina didn't channel chakra into her feet quickly enough._

_Kushina furiously burst out of the water, soaking wet. "Oh, you'll pay for this!"_

_Minato didn't answer; considering he was too busy laughing._

_"You are sleeping on the couch tonight!"_

_"But it's my house!"_

_"Don't care!"_

* * *

The next day saw Naruto about the village early, back at the bathhouse for another training lesson with Jiraiya.

"Hm...wonder where he is? He couldn't have forgotten, not with the beating Gamabunta gave him," pondered Naruto.

"Over here brat- Naruto," grumbled Jiraiya, hopping down from a tree.

"Hey, ero-sensei- I mean, Jiraiya-sensei," replied Naruto.

Jiraiya fumed. "What have I ever done to deserve such a disrespectful student!?"

"Can't imagine," said Naruto. "So, what are we doing today?"

"You choose," said Jiraiya grumpily.

"What?"

"Couldn't think what to train you in."

"Fair enough." Naruto grinned inwardly, knowing he could get Jiraiya to "teach" him Rasengan, and thus have a reason for knowing the jutsu. "Got any high-level ninjutsu...sensei?"

"Maybe. Maybe not," responded Jiraiya.

"Oh, come on!"

"You know how to summon. I don't need to teach you another jutsu. Work on tai or genjutsu...or something."

"I'm terrible with genjutsu! Besides, are you any good with genjutsu?"

"...That's an insulting question! And I don't need to answer it!"

"So you're not. So teach me some cool jutsu! Damnit, everyone knows my fighting style and jutsus!" Naruto was lying now. Minato's memories had revealed a formidable ninjutsu library, and Naruto knew he was more than capable of changing his fighting style entirely.

In fact, most ...critics, for lack of a better word, stated Minato was all-too reliant on his Hiraishin. Not only was that incorrect, it was absolutely ridiculous.

Minato was an expert in ninjutsu, taijutsu and fuinjutsu. He was capable of breaking out of nearly every kind of genjutsu, and very fast even without his Hiraishin. In fact, he rarely used the jutsu unless he was fighting large numbers. When it was one-on-one, it tended to be a waste of chakra.

And that was just his...flashy techniques. Minato was as well-versed in stealth as Jiraiya or Orochimaru. Before he earned the title "Yellow Flash," and in the earlier years of his shinobi career, he was a deadly assassin, famous around the Elemental Countries for his tendency to slice of the left ring finger of his victim.

Heck, Minato even created an alter-ego for his assassin identity, which was good, since it meant he wasn't traced back to Konoha. What was his name...Mumei-something.

Jiraiya thought for a couple of moments. "I know one good ninjutsu I could teach you...but it's a little too much for a simple chuunin exam."

'Damnit!' cursed Naruto in his head, before thinking about a response. "What about that Gaara kid? He was fighting Rock Lee for about twenty minutes, and Lee never got a scratch through that sand armour of his."

"Hm...give me a day to think about this," said Jiraiya, heading off to leave.

"A day? What the hell was the point of training then?"

"Well," said Jiraiya, scratching his head. "When I told you we'll train today...I forgot that I was going to be signing autographs today."

"Autographs- oh, for your books," said Naruto. "You know what, just go. Just go before I hit you."

"Thanks kid!" said Jiraiya, jumping onto a nearby building, using the elevation to get a quick glimpse over the woman's side in the bathhouse. "Don't worry, I'll teach you that ninjutsu tomorrow...but it'll probably take you years to master! Hah!"

'So it is the Rasengan...you are in for one hell of a surprise, sensei,' grinned Naruto, before he frowned. 'Great, now what. I'm not going to spend another day going over dad's memories...'

And to Naruto's surprise, a familiar silver-haired jounin passed by.

Naruto shrugged to himself, and called after Kakashi.

* * *

AN: Fairly slow-going, isn't this story? Oh well.

The Mumei-something was a pun on my Elementary fic, on the assassin OC. Couldn't resist- don't worry, the OC isn't going to turn out to be the Yondaime or something.

The whole Uzukaze Minruto thing is just a joke. It'll never be mentioned again.

So, next chapter! What will happen! With two ninja (both whom happen to live in the past), something's bound to go wrong!

Fuck, that's one hell of a rubbish cliff hanger.

As for the next chapter, it may take a month for it to get released. You see, I'm going on holiday. And when I get back, I'm getting one of those new 80GB PS3s, and as you can guess, that means I'll be busy.

...the precious...it's calling us...needs metal gear solid 4...


	3. Tornado of Memories

Kept you waiting, huh?

Well, the chapter is finally here. After your expectations have risen so high I could have no possible way of fulfilling them. Awesome!

Seriously though, I've decided not to use the Japanese names for all the jutsu. Sure, there are the ones everyone knows, but some I can't be bothered to look up. It also means I have to go to an online translator if I want to make up a jutsu, and I have to do that with Latin translators when I make up spells for Harry Potter fanfiction, and it's more irritating then you think.

By the way, this chapter is terrible. Really. I was writing some deep complex shit with Kakashi running off, because the real Kakashi was off training Sasuke- and he's a fake Kabuto in disguise. Worried he might be compromised, he tells Baki to go off Naruto in his sleep, which ended with Naruto killing him. With a slight political incident, Jiraiya took Naruto off, taught him Rasengan- but then I realised, that just felt too much. Too early into the fic to start that sort of stuff. And I'm probably pissing off some people who thought that might have sounded quite cool.

* * *

Chapter III- Tornado of Memories

"Good day, Naruto," said Kakashi, in a surprisingly cheerful manner, before he froze. "Wait, is this about that I'm uh, not training you for your fight against Neji?"

Naruto blinked. "Oh. I forgot about that- well, no, it's cool, I've got someone else teaching me."  
"Oh? Who?" asked Kakashi, back to his usual self.

"Ero-sensei Jiraiya," said Naruto. "You know, toad guy, big hair, all his jutsu tend to involve toads or making his hair bigger, he's a massive pervert, writes those books you love-"

"I know who he is, Naruto. So, you're being trained by Jiraiya- intriguing."

"And you're training Sasuke- or at least I think you are."

"There's absolutely no way in hell he has a chance against Gaara at the moment," Kakashi replied.

Naruto nodded in agreement, a grin on his face. "Hey Kakashi-sensei- out of interest, who was your sensei?"

"You don't know?" asked Kakashi. "It was the Yondaime."

"Really? Bet that was awesome!"

"Not really," said Kakashi. "I think he was a terrible sensei."

Naruto twitched. "Wh-what?"

"Sure, he was at good at training you- but the man was boring as hell. His jokes were worse than Obito's, and not to mention that he had serious issues. Seriously, Naruto, people think I'm a bad sensei- but they never knew him."

"Oh really?" Naruto said through gritted teeth.

"Yep. Well, see you some other time." Kakashi walked away, leaving Naruto in an extremely bad mood.

Naruto stared at the retreating back of the silver-haired jounin. "Wanker." He finally said, before turning around, thrusting his hands into his pockets and walking off.

He still had time to kill. Looks like he'd have to just work on his chakra control.

He'd tried using quite a few of Minato's ninjutsu, but found very few had worked, and even then, they were still incomplete.

If anything, his chakra control had worsened after he gained his father's memories. He had a bad chakra control before- but then his head was packed with memories of having different chakra levels and different control.

He sighed. If he wasn't able to fix that problem, it was going to come back and stab him soon. A Chuunin Exam was filled with genin- but he sometimes had troubles reminding himself he was a genin again.

A genin with very bad chakra control. And all the more dangerous opponents in the Exam, Neji, Sasuke and Gaara- all had very good chakra control, or ways of compensating for it.

He sighed. Looks like he'd have to keep doing those tree climbing and water walking exercises.

* * *

"What I will teach you will blow your mind!" Jiraiya yelled, striking another one of his dramatic poses.

"Is it the Rasengan?" Naruto asked dully.

"No!" Jiraiya shouted cheerfully.

"What?" Naruto was actually surprised. If it wasn't the Rasengan, what the hell was it?

"Well, I was going to teach it to you," said Jiraiya. "It was what I wanted to yesterday, but last night, after um, meditating, I had a brainwave."

"You mean, while drunk-"

"Shut up Naruto," Jiraiya interrupted. "No, you see, I discovered, that what the hell was I teaching you? To be a scrounger? Scrounging off the techniques of old men and dead guys? Scrounger."

Naruto didn't know whether he should continue listening or punch Jiraiya square in his stupid face.

"Every decent student of mine had their own speciality!" Jiraiya said again, striking another pose. "You have to create your own style and techniques! Summoning Toads was more than enough for now! So, goodbye! Don't talk to me again till the exams finish!"

Naruto stood still for a few moments, his mouth hanging open. "You're drunk right now as well, aren't you?"

"Bye!" Jiraiya disappeared into thin air, leaving Naruto alone.

For several seconds, Naruto started strangling the air. "Grr-thatstupid-sonofa-argh-hell-effing-bastard-urgh-what the fuck?" He suddenly screamed out.

Great. Now he had no way of explaining to everyone if he used Rasengan- as if he could've used it though, with his chakra control still very bad. Simple jutsus he could still handle easily, but he couldn't do anything fairly advanced that required a delicate use of chakra.

'Do I have to spend an entire month just practising chakra control?' He wondered. 'No way, that'll be too boring. I need to carefully think about the weaknesses of my enemies- and maybe I should leave the village for a while."

* * *

A day later saw Naruto hiking up a hill. He knew Minato owned a cabin somewhere up here, and the man would occasionally go there as a break from the village, and occasionally when he was training solo. He'd once taken Kushina there for er, stuff- and Naruto was going to disinfect and renovate the entire place to try and forget that.

Of course, the place hadn't been lived in for about thirteen years, but to Naruto's knowledge, its water and electricity was connected to a nearby village, so that should work just fine. He'd just order some Shadow Clones to fix up the place.

'Finally,' he thought, 'some peace and quiet.'

He stepped into view of the house, his hands instantly forming the seal for the Shadow Clone Technique. Within moments, ten other Narutos popped into existence. He sent them in first, there was the chance someone else had started residing in the place.

One of the clones dispelled itself, thus informing Naruto about the status of the cabin. It was dusty, a few too many cobwebs, but liveable.

"Hey, you guys!" Naruto yelled at them. "Get a move on and start cleaning!"

The clones groaned and got to work. Naruto spent the time re-familiarising himself with the area. Sure, that odd clump of mushrooms had gone, a tree had fallen over and there were a few more birds around, but nothing had really changed.

An hour or so later, the clones dispelled themselves, finished.

Naruto entered the cabin, the place looking as good as new. This was it. His training ground, his private haven. Now, it was time for a cunning plan.

As Minato had said: "A large crisis requires a large plan. And a plan should be a very, very cunning plan, as cunning as a fox who used to be a Professor of Cunning at Konoha University but has moved on and is working for the entire Elemental Countries at the High Commission of International Cunning Planning."

Well, not all of Minato's quotes were that brilliant. But no one makes that much sense when they're hammered.

He was not going to be fighting a war or something, that'd just be ridiculous. Instead he'd just figure out a way of dealing with the real threats. Sasuke, Gaara and Neji.

Shikamaru would fall asleep or something in the middle of a battle or start just looking at the clouds. The other Sand ninja might be a threat, but he couldn't focus on them right now. Besides, he doubted Kankuro would take out Shino, and anyway, his plan for Shino was to just toast him with enough Fire Jutsu.

The fan girl? Wind jutsu from distance, and the thing would probably hurt quite a bit if he got hit with it while it was folded at close range. Actually, he might spend some time than he thought dealing with her. Naruto stopped for a moment; that last bit sounded oddly like a euphemism.

And Dosu of the Sound. Well, he was a cut above his teammates, but his power lay in close range for his sound attacks to have real effect.

He wondered briefly whether they should have done something about there being nine competitors. Was someone going to have to fight two rounds? It seemed a bit unfair. Well, maybe someone would just not show up or something. Who knows, maybe someone would actually die. No, that was just silly. What could possibly happen over this month?

* * *

Dosu checked his amplifier. He was going to find Gaara over this month. That sand wouldn't stop sound waves. He was going to put him out of commission. He was going to kill Sasuke.

He would not be treated by a pawn like anyone. His teammates were defeated, and they could've been killed earlier. Dosu had realised Orochimaru had been using them to determine Sasuke's worth. By God, he would not be treated like some disposable piece of shit.

He'd kill Gaara. And then he'd be free to fight Sasuke in the Exam. He wanted Orochimaru to see him kill the same guy who'd nearly killed Zaku, the same guy who Orochimaru had meant them to die against.

What could possibly go wrong?

* * *

There was a river about half an hour's walk from the cabin. For a ninja, that made it barely a five or ten minute run. Naruto made it there, and slowly began to balance on the shallow parts with slower current. He'd spend today training on the water; he needed to build up his control again.

He sat down on the water cross-legged. And he began to think.

Building up his chakra control was not going to be enough. He needed something else. Naruto was going to create a new technique. As useless as Jiraiya had been the other day, he'd realised the man had a point. He was not Minato.

Why should he use his techniques? The Rasengan and Hiraishin were powerful, shockingly so- but Jiraiya was right. Was he a scrounger, nicking his dad's techniques? Well, a part of him didn't care, but another part, a prideful part refused to be treated as the Second Yellow Flash, when he could be someone entirely new.

Of course, the knowledge of them was there, and he'd learn them in time, but they'd be there, an available backup in the case that death would be the other option. After all, he could at least explain away the Kyuubi's chakra, but not those techniques.

And although he had the knowledge, it'd still take a lot of time to actually master them. Screw it, he'd come up with his own techniques in the meantime. Well, creating a technique took up more effort than that, but still, he'd make a start.

He listened to the world around him, and began to think, looking for that little bit of inspiration.

Elemental manipulation. He'd- Minato'd ignored that for the Hiraishin, and had only meant to mix elemental affinity in the Rasengan.

Naruto wasn't going to limit himself to one elemental affinity. In time, the chakra of a being grows stronger and a person can have multiple affinities, or even balance them entirely. No need to waste time focusing on one.

He began to focus chakra into his hands. He sank a little into the water, but soon rose again. The chakra, he let it surge and grow, starting to amplify it. How to unleash it? Should he form a hand seal? He began to move his hands close together, but then no, his gut said, that feels wrong.

Maybe Naruto wasn't a genius like his dad, even with his memories, but he knew what felt right and wrong when dealing with chakra. His chakra had always been strong, and now looking back, thinking of all the techniques he'd failed to perform due to too much control- he could see his chakra speak to him, telling him to use his power for greater techniques, the way it was meant to be used.

His chakra wasn't powerful yet to become visible. Perhaps he should make his own counter to techniques like Rasengan and Chidori? No, that wasn't what this technique was for- but it was an extremely early stage. He was only focusing chakra into his hands without a clue with what to do with it.

Carefully, Naruto began to familiarise himself with it. Maybe he should just release it now and see if he could think of something-?

It was too soon, and it merely dispersed into the air.

Maybe he was going about this the wrong way. He needed to think- what was he trying to form? A bullet technique or shockwave might- well, a lot of bullet techniques tended to focus around fire. And shockwave techniques were obviously wind.

He thought of wind. Just about every wind technique was a slicing attack or shockwave. No. He'd make his own brand new technique, just like his father had done with the Rasengan and Hiraishin. How else did the wind destroy? What could be another powerful manifestation- a tornado. Not one of the miserable things created by fan-wielders, a real tornado.

How could he create an actual tornado?

Naruto doubted Minato knew either. He'd have to make a stop at that neighbouring village and see if they had a library or something. But- holy shit, he thought, as he found the information tucked away in his head. Minato did know. He'd wondered once about natural disasters or something and looked it up.

The explanation was pretty complex, but after several tries, Naruto managed to simplify it.

Intense heat causes moist air to rise. When it meets cold dry air, it explodes upwards. This may form a thunder cloud and a storm starts. Rapid movement of upwards air and then winds from different directions causes it to rotate.

Trying to replicate that using chakra would be hard as hell. Well, he could probably form the thunder clouds with a powerful enough fire jutsu, but he'd have to do something to keep a constant movement of upwards air, not to mention the winds.

No, this wasn't going to be easy, but the technique if created would be capable of destruction on such a scale, depending on how fast it rotated.

Once again, he began to meditate.

What if his chakra itself was pumping heat into the sky? He'd be the very heat source itself. Constantly doing so should provide thunder clouds. But what about the rotation? Was there a technique or so to provide wind from- no, Wind Techniques were sent at people, not back on the user.

Could he make the technique himself, or simply provide the rotation? Wait, provide the rotation, like one of those Hyuuga and their Kaiten? No, that was ridiculous. He wasn't capable of spinning to the incredible speeds required for a truly powerful tornado, and even then, that'd have its own drawbacks.

For a start, he'd be so dizzy after that he wouldn't be able to move anywhere. Secondly, that'd mean his tornado wouldn't be going anywhere, and would stay stationary until he stopped spinning and then just end.

What if his chakra provided the spinning, like if he was in a sort of bubble that rotated, but he himself remained stationary?

There was also the slight problem with the fact that at some point he'd also get whisked away by the tornado. Of course, he could then easily end the technique, but it'd then mean he was now falling through the air from probably very high up.

Time to go back to the old drawing board. Naruto cleared his head. All this concentration was getting him hungry.

With that, he forgot he was balancing on the water and promptly sank.

* * *

"Oh, hey," said Kakashi. "Wait, Jiraiya, what are you doing here? I thought Naruto was being trained by you for the Chuunin Exams."

"I told him to come up with his own techniques rather than copying others," Jiraiya said, with a pointed look at Kakashi.

"I created Chidori and Raikiri," Kakashi replied. "That's good enough for me. So what, you're not teaching him anything?"

"I taught him how to Summon Toads, and that's good enough for me," Jiraiya replied, continuing to look through the telescope across the village, right into the bathhouse. "Oh yeah. I mean, Kakashi, look at the size of those!"

"Huh?" Kakashi reached over for the telescope, only for Jiraiya to slap his hand away.

"I said look at the size of those, not take my only telescope and look at the size of those," said Jiraiya irritably.

Kakashi whipped out his binoculars. "Hey, you're right. Anyway, I'll be leaving soon. Got to train Sasuke for the Chuunin Exams."

"Sounds like fun."

"Yeah, so uh, about Naruto," said Kakashi. "You realise there's no way he could possibly come up with new jutsus in time for the Chuunin Exams, right?"

"Well," Jiraiya said, frowning. "There's a chance he'll do something right."

"Oh, come on, the only possible way for him to accomplish that is if he somehow became as smart as the Yondaime Hokage."

Jiraiya chuckled. "You're right, that would be ridiculous. Tell you what, I'll let him mess around for the rest of the week, and then I'll find him and help him out a bit, and maybe teach him a few jutsus that can help him out."

Kakashi laughed as well. "You know what? I suddenly think it'll be hilarious if somehow he manages to finish making a jutsu in that time. Why, it'd make you seem like quite the fool."

"Why are you talking like that all of a sudden?" Jiraiya said, frowning again. "It makes me feel as though I'm not aware of something. Besides, I thought we already said that Naruto could only possibly make his own jutsu if he was as smart as the Yondaime."

"Yes," said Kakashi, looking away from Jiraiya and then turning as though he was speaking to an invisible person. "Wink wink, nudge nudge."

"Seriously, what the hell are you doing?"

* * *

Naruto fiddled around on the drawing board. A little stickman with spiky hair stood in the middle.

"Alright, so first chakra must travel up, pumping heat into the sky," Naruto said, drawing some arrows going upwards and labelling them as Step One "which causes thunder clouds," he added, drawing the clouds above the arrows and labelling them Step Two.

"Finally, the chakra must start spinning," he said, drawing arrows circling the chakra travelling upwards, and labelling them Step Three. "Maybe the chakra providing the heat could also be spinning around the user," and he wrote that beside his diagram.

He then started writing on the other side of the diagram. "Dangers- constantly pumping out chakra could quickly cause chakra exhaustion. Such a technique is likely non-suitable for one-on-fights. Also, it probably isn't that safe to be standing in the centre of a tornado. Finally, there seems to be the whole thing of not really being able to control the tornado."

Naruto was staring at the board for several moments, chewing on the end of the pen as he did so.

"Nope. That wouldn't work."

And so began a long and arduous process as he thought of a new way to attempt this jutsu, then would spend several moments analysing and evaluating his new attempt, and then realise it wouldn't make it.

Such an unstable technique that required so much power- he just couldn't think of a way that he could get it to work.

He glanced out of the window, and was surprised to see the sun setting. "Huh. When did that happen?"

His first day had nearly gone by, but he wanted to be ready. He wanted to be ready for his first try with the technique tomorrow- and at this rate, he'd still need a while to figure out what he had to do.

Naruto sighed. Maybe he'd try tackling each problem individually and see where that got him.

Chakra exhaustion- he'd figured Kyuubi chakra earlier, but that wouldn't help with anything else. Keeping safe from the tornado- maybe he could create some sort of chakra bubble? But this was getting ridiculous, how much set up would this technique need? And as for controlling the tornado- what was he supposed to do, push it?

He laughed hollowly, before his breath caught. Why had he got into his head in the first place that he needed to be inside the tornado?

Naruto rushed back to the drawing board, tearing the paper off the board and writing on the one that he'd placed underneath it. Grinning like a fool, he finished his diagrams in a matter of moments, although they were considerably more illegible than the first one he'd done.

"And just insert a hand sign sequence there- hm, make sure to end that one with a Tiger- then leave this bit with no hand signs- and the control might need a few-"

If this had been another time, he might've marvelled at how smarter his father's memories had made him. Then he would've realised, no- they'd given him the theory that for years he'd been not paying attention to, and now, here the knowledge was in his head- and when he needed to, Naruto could think well enough how to sort out a problem.

And with these tools at his disposal, he'd make this technique.

Naruto worked late into the night.

* * *

AN:

In case someone out there didn't realise, Kakashi was just breaking the fourth wall.

I have to admit, I hated writing this chapter once I realised the original plan wasn't going to work. The only thing that kept it going was writing Naruto creating his new technique, which was surprisingly fun.


	4. Fist of the Thunder God

Like the last chapter, I had to do a bit of research. Since this chapter focuses on taijutsu, I researched several martial arts styles, something that roughly translates as "I watched a lot of martial arts movies." Best research ever. Well, second to Jiraiya's.

Oh, and I took some liberties with the scene with Gaara trying to kill Lee in the hospital. In the actual storyline, it takes place the day before the final, here, about a week before. Since most people just skip the entire scene entirely, I see no problem with this.

* * *

Chapter IV- Fist of the Thunder God

"Carefully, carefully," Naruto said, focusing upon the winds that were gathering upon the water.

He had decided to build off other Wind techniques in order to gather the winds. Of course, unlike other techniques, this required the presence of clouds, but that could simply be done by using fireballs or even simpler, gathering and manifesting his chakra.

Slowly, the winds began to spin.

The only problem was that he had to remain standing to manipulate the spinning, using his fingers to distribute chakra evenly and across the still-building tornado. The lack of speed shown was no concern, he was deliberately being slow so he could control it with more ease and see any problems in this first test run.

"Now, fast."

He waved his hands horizontally and continuously, his fingers clawed, before he waved them vertically.

The winds began to spin violently, and the funnel cloud formed, turning a light shade of blue as a result of the water the tornado was over. It was hardly that powerful, but he had actually done it.

"And now-"

He began to let the tornado dissipate, not trusting that left alone to its own devices, it would end immediately. The tornado roped out, the funnel cloud twisting and lengthening, but eventually, the winds died.

Naruto sat down by the water's edge, filled with glee at the creation of his first jutsu. Admittedly, he still had to give it a lot of work, and he was hoping to replace the manipulation of chakra with simple hand seals, and do something about the lengthy ending process- but still, it worked.

He lay on his back, laughing.

And the laughter immediately died as he found himself having to do something that Minato had often had to do after he created a new jutsu.

Figure out what practical use it has.

Naruto wasn't exactly going to get much use out of it in the Chuunin Exam, and would probably just end up wrecking the stadium that was used for the battles. Tornadoes take out entire towns, not one measly genin.

"Aw crap, this is like that stupid water jutsu that cleans behind your ears all over again."

* * *

With no real practical use for the first version of his tornado jutsu, Naruto decided to put it on hold for the next few days. He thought maybe a good idea might be to shrink it down, but he was worried that if that was the case, what was the problem with just using an already made Wind jutsu?

For now, he'd focus on how he was going to defeat Neji, and the first step had been to spend time going through flashbacks of Minato having "friendly" spars with Hyuuga members.

He sat cross legged upon the water, lost in memories, but slowly, his mind began to piece together the answers.

The Hyuuga's Byakugan makes them immune to most genjutsu and aware of just about everything around them. Their Kaiten technique can serve to deflect projectiles, shield from ninjutsu, and even knock away enemies in a whirlwind. Their taijutsu style hits the tenketsu with deadly accuracy, resulting in their opponents being unable to use chakra, as well as generally being powerful and being able to beat down an opponent through sheer force.

But even so, Naruto could hear his father's voice in his head, observing the weaknesses he'd seen across his spars with the Hyuuga members.

The Byakugan has a blind spot, but it's so small aiming for it can be a waste of time. Being underground helps, and Earth jutsu are also useful.

The Kaiten is powerful, but spinning around like a maniac is going to end up damaging to them. Stay away when they do it, but if you force them to keep having to do so, they burn through their chakra and start feeling dizzy.

Their taijutsu was strong, but the Hyuuga's reluctance to learn and add more to their style was their greatest weakness. It made their taijutsu too inflexible and rigid, while Minato had believed that a shinobi should do whatever necessary to defend himself regardless of what style it came from, and when he had fought Hyuuga, he had revealed a ruthless streak to try and beat this point into them.

And finally, there was one real technique the Hyuuga were helpless against. Minato had only used it once because he had never been pushed as far as that one Hyuuga did, but when he did, it absolutely left the Byakugan reeling.

But at any rate, Naruto would not get far against Neji if he didn't improve his taijutsu. Most of what he called his current style was a mixture of the basic academy style to things he'd seen, in movies, thugs beating each other up on the street, and moves he'd seen Sasuke do (although he'd never admit to that).

Minato had learnt many styles before ultimately concluding that it was pointless to know each style inside out, and chose to discard what didn't actually help him. He'd never perfected his taijutsu style that he'd intended to name the Fist of the Thunder God, which Naruto thought was quite frankly the coolest name he'd ever heard.

Still, he wouldn't complete it, he'd come up with his own style. Fist of Naruto.

…no, that sounded stupid. Well, he'd have plenty of time to develop a taijutsu style, he wasn't going to delude himself to think that it'd take anything less than years anyway.

Fist of Uzumaki?

…still no.

* * *

Eventually, Naruto decided to just try and follow his father's philosophies and just learn what was useful. There were plenty of styles to choose from in his father's memories, and not for the first time, he felt a mixture of wonder and horror.

It was amazing how much Minato had learnt in such a short time, but the horror stemmed from the amount of pain he went through. The history books remembered the Fourth as some godlike figure, valiant and heroic in his battles against first the forces of Iwa then the Kyuubi.

No one remembered the boy who'd torn every muscle in his arms trying to get another taijutsu style down, or how he'd once even shattered all the bones in his hand after a failed palm strike. No one else knew that even Minato had doubted himself sometimes, questioning why he went through such pains, was it even worth it? And the doubts still stayed with him throughout his life.

Naruto had been interested in a great deal of styles all the same, often just picking them out because of their names: Rising Thunder. Touch of Death. Fistful of Lightning. Dragon Slaying Palm. Way of the Interceptor.

They were the first of the styles Naruto hit upon, but eventually he turned them down. They were simply too orientated to killing the opponent, and Naruto was not out to kill a fellow Leaf ninja.

He thought about trying to study the taijutsu style that attacked pressure points, but then decided it'd take too much time. He might give it a brief overview, but with his muscle memory still screwed up, there was no way he could possibly pick out the pressure points quickly enough when fighting an opponent, unless he was frozen or something.

His best bet was to just more or less do what Minato had done and just take the techniques and moves he needed. He could select killing techniques if he had to, but he'd keep that to a minimum for now, seeing as he'd be able to learn any he needed after the exam.

It was decided then. He'd practise a few techniques for now, but soon he'd need an opponent to train his taijutsu with. A Shadow Clone wouldn't cut it, because it'd also be using the same jumble of moves he would be using. He needed someone who was superior to him in taijutsu- of course.

* * *

"Excuse me; can you help me find a patient's room?" Naruto asked the woman behind the desk at the hospital.

She looked up briefly. "Of course, what's his name?"

"Rock Lee."

"…what? Is that even an actual name?"

"Just look it up, would you?"

The woman did so, shaking her head. But a few moments, she turned back to him, surprised. "Sorry, it turns out we do have a patient registered under that name. Well, I've seen some strange-"

"Yeah, where's his room then?" Naruto interrupted.

Once he got the directions, he headed up to the right ward. Like most ninja when they were hospitalised, Lee had been given a private room rather than be put into a shared ward.

Lee was still sleeping when Naruto arrived. Deciding to not wake him, Naruto pulled up a chair, trying to supress the pity he knew the fellow genin wouldn't appreciate. Lee had some horrific injuries, and Minato's memories told him it was most likely he would never be a ninja again.

Naruto sat there, eyes closed. He now had a lot more respect for Lee, when earlier his immediate thought upon seeing him was "Eyebrows!" Lee deserved to be in the finals. He would've beaten anyone he faced in the preliminary round hands-down except the one he'd been given.

He'd actually been looking for Gai, but had decided to ask Lee for the man's usual whereabouts.

The door opened, and Naruto opened his eyes. "Shikamaru? What are you doing here?" Naruto said."

Shikamaru frowned as he entered the room. "I was visiting Chouji. Heard the woman downstairs talk about how Rock was a silly name before she went out to lunch, so I figured someone must've asked about Lee and I decided to see if someone I knew was up here."

"Why's Chouji in the hospital? I didn't think he got that beaten up in the preliminaries," Naruto said.

"Indigestion," Shikamaru said. "I got him a fruit basket and everything and it turns out he's put on a strict diet."

"Oh, well if he can't have any, let's not waste good food," said Naruto. "Pass me a banana-"

Naruto stopped. The air felt strange all of a sudden, and for some reason, he could feel malevolence directed at him. And Shikamaru seemed to feel it too. He looked over to the open window, and approached it.

Sand trickled in, and then, more. A boy materialised out of the sand, but his sunken eyes were focused only on Lee, and he gave no hint to if he had even noticed them.

"You know, most people use the door," said Naruto.

"What are you doing here?" Shikamaru asked.

Gaara tilted his head, slowly looking over at him. "I'm here to kill him."

Naruto raised his fists, but only for Shikamaru to seize Gaara with his shadow technique. "What the hell?" Shikamaru asked finally. "You have some sort of grudge with him?"

"No," said Gaara. "I just want to kill him. And if you get in my way, I'll kill you too."

"I'd like to see you try," Naruto said.

"What the hell, Naruto? Did you see the way he fought Lee? He's like a demon or something!"

"A demon?" Naruto grinned. "I've got one of my own. No problem."

"Oh? Then we are the same," said Gaara. "When I was but a new born, my father-"

"I'm not in the mood to hear your tragic past," said Naruto. "As I said, I've got one of my own. If you want to kill me, go ahead and try."

Shikamaru released his shadow technique as he turned to Naruto in shock. "Are you out of your goddamned mind-?"

"Tornado Fist!" Naruto shouted, punching the air ahead of him.

The next thing Shikamaru saw was a great rush of spinning wind that resembled a horizontal tornado that launched Gaara out of the window. "What the crap?" He said dumbly.

Naruto didn't appear to notice him as he danced around the room, doing a little jig. "Haha, it actually worked! I found a practical use out of it just by shrinking it down! I am a genius!"

"You're a moron," said Shikamaru, slapping his forehead with his palm. "You realise now you've probably just made him really angry rather than actually hurting him?"

Naruto froze. "Shit."

A torrent of sand flew in through and the two jumped out of the way, only for it to twist and go after them. Naruto picked up the chair, trying to fend it off like an animal tamer fighting off a lion, only for the sand to grab the chair and rip it apart.

With the amount of free space in the room rapidly decreasing, the two were forced to follow Gaara out of the window, jumping down to the ground outside where he awaited them.

"Okay, now if we want to get out of this alive-" Shikamaru started, but Naruto only outstretched his hands. It was already a cloudy day, so he didn't have to worry about the setup Fire technique.

"Hey Gaara, tell me if the sky looks nice up there," said Naruto.

He ran through some seals to set up part of the technique, and the winds began to gather. Gaara frowned, his own sand rising-

"What are you kids doing?"

The winds and sand fell, as all three genin looked up to see Gai standing above them on a post. "That's enough. If you've got any pent-up rage, settle it in the stadium next week. I understand that short tempers are a sign of youth, but now is not the time."

Gaara hissed, and disappeared into sand.

"Don't think we'll be seeing him again," said Gai. "Is Lee okay?"

"Yeah," said Naruto, looking back to the window. "Huh, is that Sakura-chan? Giving Lee flowers? What?"

Gai turned to face Lee's room and gave it a thumbs up. "Good work my boy, pulling them in even when you're asleep. Didn't I tell you that bowl cut works wonders? You'll have to run at least two hundred laps to atone for doubting me when you're recovered."

"Yeah, uh, I'm just gonna go back inside now," said Shikamaru. "And thanks, Gai-sensei. You really helped us out."

"Yeah, thanks," said Naruto, as Shikamaru entered the hospital doors. "But Gai-sensei, I was wondering if you could help me out with my taijutsu."

Gai looked curious, even if somewhat reluctant. "You want to learn Iron Fist?"

"No, I just wanted a sparring partner," said Naruto.

"Me?" Gai laughed. "The flames of your youth burn brightly indeed, but do you realise what you're getting into here? I'm the best in the village when it comes to taijutsu, just as my eternal rival is the best when it comes to ninjutsu."

"I need a sparring partner," said Naruto. "Practising taijutsu without being in a fight is like trying to learn how to swim on dry land. And I can't get any better unless I'm fighting a tougher opponent."

Gai looked surprised for a moment, and then his eyes were brimming with tears. "Naruto-kun! You will truly make a great shinobi one day! I will be honoured to become your new sparring partner!"

Naruto opened his mouth to reply, but couldn't as Gai pounced down from the post and seized him in a bone breaking hug.

* * *

"And that makes fifty-nine wins for me and zero wins for you," said Gai cheerfully, as Naruto finally regained consciousness after having been beaten soundly for the fifty ninth time that week.

They'd had a week. Gai had insisted that Naruto spend the last day resting and recuperating so he would be in peak condition for his fight against Neji, and so they would have ten spars on each of the six days they had left.

Those spars typically just consisted of Naruto getting his arse kicked.

Still, he knew he was improving. The time Gai took to kick his arse had been steadily increasing throughout the week, and he'd actually started getting hits in on him halfway through the fifth day.

Although that didn't stop how embarrassing it was.

Naruto lay there flat on his back, rubbing one of the bruises on his face. Although Gai pulled his punches and held back to avoid killing him, Gai was still strong as hell. On the first spar (how long ago that seemed), Gai had actually one hit KO'd him, and nearly dislocated his jaw in the process.

"Come on Naruto-kun, up! Time is threatening to cut into our final spar!"

Naruto groaned as he managed to climb to his feet. If Neji was even a tenth as good as Gai, he was screwed.

"Now now, where's that youthful spirit of yours? If you face me like that, I've already won, Naruto-kun!"

In response, Naruto gave an incredibly forced, painful smile that actually succeeding in wiping the smile from Gai's face.

Both of them took up their stances, Gai taking his standard Iron Fist stance with a hand behind his back, and Naruto simply taking a guard stance, both hands raised, his right hand ahead of his left.

Gai attacked, delivering a quick set of punches that broke through Naruto's guard and hit him several times in the chest. Instead of pressing his advantage, he stepped back, jogging on the spot.

"Come on Naruto-kun, another time like that and it's over!"

Naruto took up his stance again, and as Gai approached, still bouncing up and down on the spot, he quickly realised what Gai was planning.

He ducked under the first kick that would've smashed into his face, but he continued moving even as Gai's leg was just above him, ready to counter.

Gai screamed in pain as Naruto punched him in the groin.

"Crap- sorry Gai-sensei," said Naruto, realising that completely overdid it. He could almost feel his father's disapproval on him. Punching another man in the groin was never okay.

"It's- it's alright!" said Gai, rolling on the ground, his eyes screwed up in pain.

Naruto chose to not try and hit the man now, and waited for the jounin to recover. When Gai did a few moments later, he had stopped jogging, but neither had he taken up his usual stance. Crap, he was about to try and end it with his Dynamic Entry.

"Okay, let's resume, shall we?" Gai said. "Dynamic Entry!"

Naruto knew how to stop it, but he'd never been able to get the timing right. And then an idea came to him- the orange legwarmers. What if he tried to focus on those? Once they were past him, they marked the right spot-

As Gai came with his flying kick, he stepped to the side, and raised his arm, striking the leg on the underside, around the knee. He struggled with Gai's weight, but managed to use it against him, and using his arm as a lever, Gai toppled to the ground.

He stooped, and struck Gai on the forehead.

Gai smiled. "Excellent! One win to you! That brings the tally to fifty nine wins to me and one win to you!"

Naruto blinked, before helping the eccentric man up. Gai straightened with an unnecessary flourish and a jump, before standing upright with his hands on his hips.

"Well, I'm off to run a hundred laps around the town and do a hundred sit ups as penance for beating a genin up fifty-nine times and also for losing to a genin. Good luck in your fight Naruto-kun!"

"Yeah, thanks for helping-"

Gai slapped himself. "What was I thinking? I just wished the student of Kakashi good luck in his fight against my student! A hundred push ups must be added to my list! Well, remember what I said, Naruto. Only a light workout tomorrow to avoid injuring yourself before the tournament, understand?"

Naruto nodded and Gai laughed heartily. "Excellent! You'll do well, Naruto-kun!"

* * *

A day later saw Naruto relaxing in the bathhouse. "Aw, that's good," he said, as he fell back into the warm waters, his eyes closed.

"Oi, what are you doing there?" said a familiar voice.

Naruto opened his eyes to see Jiraiya perched on the roof of the bathhouse. "So you were messing around here for the whole month instead of training me?"

"I wasn't just here, I have many things to do with my time," Jiraiya replied. "So Naruto, shouldn't you be getting ready for that fight or whatever you're doing tomorrow?"

"I'm taking a day off to relax," Naruto said. "Now shove off or I'm gonna tell the women you've been spying on them."

Jiraiya grinned, unfazed by the threat. "A day off to relax? Kid, you've come to the right place."

Already knowing what Jiraiya's plans were when it came to relaxing, Naruto scowled. "I'm not in the mood to get liquored up and dropped off at a brothel. I've got a fight tomorrow."

"I just don't understand what's with you kids these days," Jiraiya said.

"Nothing's more boring than an old man talking about the days of his youth," said Naruto, stretching his arms above his head.

Jiraiya scratched his chin. "Huh, I'll have to give you that one. Anyway, come on kid. I'm not saying you have to get wasted. How about you show me what you've learnt, I give you a helping hand and then we go have a couple of drinks? Unless you decide you want a drinking contest, we'll be fine; no one gets drunk after a couple of beers."

"Well…" Naruto actually paused. Having Jiraiya help a little with his Tornado Fist wouldn't be too bad an idea. And frankly, the only danger he could see would be if Jiraiya ran off and left him to cover the bill- something he probably would do, actually.

* * *

Next morning, Naruto awoke with his head feeling like it was being pounded by a jackhammer. He groaned, and then his eye looked over at the alarm clock.

His scream was heard through all of Konoha.

* * *

Naruto ran through the streets, heading to the stadium. He was going to murder Jiraiya next time he saw him.

Fortunately enough, he was still in his clothes, but he hadn't had enough time to shower or brush his teeth. He'd eaten half a packet of mints, which at least fixed the problem of his breath, but there was still a stench of alcohol clinging to him.

Plus his hangover. Minato's memories did the liberty of telling him that moulding chakra while suffering from a hangover was a real bitch. He groaned, Neji wouldn't even need to hit his tenketsu points if he wanted to stop him using chakra.

The stadium loomed ahead of him, and he continued running. There were thankfully few people around, but that meant all the spectators were already in, so the fights were about to begin. And his and Neji's fight was supposed to be first.

He entered the passage that led inside the stadium, and just as his eyes had adjusted to the darkness, he had run all the way through, blinking like a mole as a result of the sun in his face.

The other genin were still lined up, with a jounin standing by them, evidently the referee. He sighed with relief, he wasn't late. It was only as he walked over to the others when he realised that there were others missing.

"Hey Shikamaru," said Naruto. "Has Sasuke not shown up?"

"Nope," Shikamaru replied. "Neither has that Dosu guy I was supposed to be fighting. This is oddly troublesome."

Naruto looked over at Gaara, and Shikamaru followed his gaze. "Anyway, Sasuke had better learnt something special if he wants to stand a chance against that guy," Shikamaru muttered.

The jounin Genma picked at his teeth with his senbon. "Have you been drinking?" He asked Naruto, and all the other genin looked around at him, having wondered where that smell was coming from. "You're underage, aren't you?"

"Look, can we just start the fights?" Naruto asked.

Genma tilted his head. "Yeah, might as well. Crowd are getting impatient. Alright, everyone except Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuuga Neji up to the competitor's box."

A cheer awoke in the audience as they realised the fights were finally starting. Naruto and Neji separated, walking away from each other to give them both some distance before they turned around.

"Accept your fate to lose at my hands," said Neji.

"I'm just gonna beat some sense into you," Naruto replied, cracking the knuckles in his right hand.

"Good, good, pre-match taunts," Genma said lazily. "Well, put on a good show."

"If a good show is beating him with a single move," Neji said.

"Not quite."

Naruto raised his fists, his right hand ahead of his left. Neji activated his Byakugan, before slipping into offensive stance one of the Hyuuga taijutsu. He intended to do exactly what he said and end it with a single move.

Perfect.

"Begin!"

Neji shot forwards like a cork out of a bottle, his right hand being brought back to deliver his palm strike.

It was all about the timing.

Naruto's right hand grabbed Neji's arm. He spun around into Neji, slamming his left elbow into the older boy's side before he could strike with his other hand. With both hands, Naruto took hold of Neji's arm and flipped him over his shoulder.

The Hyuuga landed on his back, but Naruto didn't wait for him to get up. He crouched, and started pummelling Neji's face with both hands, but only for the Hyuuga to quickly cover his head. Naruto moved on to start punching his chest, but Neji countered quickly enough, swinging his legs and kicking Naruto away.

Naruto staggered back, but quickly shifted back into his stance as Neji rose, with an ugly look on his face. There was a bruise starting to form on the side of his face, very noticeable due to his pale skin.

"What happened to that single move stuff Neji?" Naruto asked. "I don't think getting flipped onto your arse was what fate told you."

Neji rubbed his bruise with a knuckle, before he took up a different stance. He said nothing, choosing to silently glare at Naruto. This time, he was going to be serious.

* * *

AN:

Expect to see a faster update than before, I've got most of the next chapter sketched out this time.

Oh, and Reaper of Death and Elementary are going to be updated soon, keep an eye out.


	5. The Egos Collide

Okay. I actually finished this chapter a while ago, but forgot to upload it. Er, yeah.

* * *

Chapter V- The Egos Collide

_"Begin!"_

_Neji shot forwards like a cork out of a bottle, his right hand being brought back to deliver his palm strike._

_It was all about the timing._

_Naruto's right hand grabbed Neji's arm. He spun around into Neji, slamming his left elbow into the older boy's side before he could strike with his other hand. With both hands, Naruto took hold of Neji's arm and flipped him over his shoulder._

_The Hyuuga landed on his back, but Naruto didn't wait for him to get up. He crouched, and started pummelling Neji's face with both hands, but only for the Hyuuga to quickly cover his head. Naruto moved on to start punching his chest, but Neji countered quickly enough, swinging his legs and kicking Naruto away._

_Naruto staggered back, but quickly shifted back into his stance as Neji rose, with an ugly look on his face. There was a bruise starting to form on the side of his face, very noticeable due to his pale skin._

_"What happened to that single move stuff Neji?" Naruto asked. "I don't think getting flipped onto your arse was what fate told you."_

_Neji rubbed his bruise with a knuckle, before he took up a different stance. He said nothing, choosing to silently glare at Naruto. This time, he was going to be serious._

* * *

Sakura and Ino were watching the fight with the upmost shock upon their faces, while Kiba and Hinata were in the row behind them, equally stunned. Sure, Naruto was regarded as the number one most surprising ninja, but this was something else. He was managing to fend off Neji, who up until this point, had been viewed as the strongest genin from Konoha in the competition.

"What's going on?" Ino said. "When was Naruto some sort of taijutsu expert?"

"Gai-sensei said he'd been practising with him."

The genin looked back to see Lee hobbling on his crutches, Tenten following worriedly behind him. She'd spotted him from her seat and wanted to help him out, but he refused to let her help support him.

Lee took a seat in the row behind them. "As I said, Gai-sensei told me yesterday that Naruto-kun asked him to help him prepare by sparring with him."

"Wait, Naruto asked that?" said Sakura.

Lee nodded. "But I've been trained by Gai-sensei for years, and I've never managed to even come close to beating Neji," he said, his gaze forlorn as he watched the two fight in the stadium.

"Well, if it helps, no one else had ever come close to Neji before either," said Tenten.

"But Naruto's not using your Iron Fist, is he?" said Sakura, vaguely recalling what Lee's attacks looked like from the occasions she had seen him fight.

"No, he appears to be using a hybrid of styles," said Lee. "But that is the mystery."

"Mind explaining what you're talking about?" Ino asked.

"To be able to use a hybrid of styles, Naruto-kun would obviously require extensive knowledge of several taijutsu styles," said Lee. "Maybe not full mastery, but he'd have to know them well. But the only way that could be possible would be if he'd been training for years, maybe ten or even twenty. But that would be impossible, considering both Naruto-kun's age and the fact he displayed no skill in taijutsu before this fight."

"What about when he beat Kiba?" Sakura asked.

Lee thought back to the preliminaries. "That's true. But even so, his taijutsu was nowhere as advanced as it is now, and before that, I recall defeating him with a single move when I challenged Sasuke."

"So what, are you saying that's an imposter?" asked Ino, casting a suspicious look down at Naruto.

"I don't see how," said Lee. "Neji would at least, have seen through any genjutsu and his attacks would've broken through a Transformation Jutsu."

"Oh my god!" Ino shrieked. "Then that must be Naruto's evil twin down there!"

Sakura gave Ino a look.

"Well, even if Naruto has an evil twin," said Tenten slowly, "there's still no way he can beat Neji. Neji still hasn't shown off his most powerful techniques."

* * *

Neji was shaking with fatigue as he and Naruto broke away from each other. How on earth had the fool gotten so strong over such a short period of time?

"A little out of breath, are we?" Naruto said, grinning. A trickle of blood ran down his lip, and he wiped it away with his thumb. His hands formed the seal of the jutsu he was so well known for.

Neji caught his breath. He'd originally thought that Naruto's Shadow Clones would be of no consequence; he'd easily be able to defend himself from a horde of brawlers with little fighting skill, but an army of capable-

The Shadow Clones came out sheet white and lying on the ground. Naruto was suddenly sporting an incredibly fixed looking grin as one of the Clones tried to climb to its feet.

Neji quickly deduced the poor chakra moulding that had failed the jutsu had something to do with the stench of liquor that hung around Naruto as well as the way he kept holding his head as though it pained him. And as the failed Clones dispelled, Neji attacked, hoping to seize an advantage while Naruto had not put up a stance. But still, Naruto weaved around his palm thrusts.

"Flow like water," Naruto murmured, before aiming a kick at Neji's knee.

Neji darted back, knowing better than to try and guard a low kick at this range when Naruto would simply take advantage of the lowered guard.

"Your taijutsu is impressive, Neji, but there's quite a bit of unnecessary movement. And you don't put enough power into your palm strikes and compensate by focusing too much on hitting the tenketsu point."

"Are you trying to instruct me?" Neji's voice came as a low hiss.

Hinata had made Neji lose control in her fight with him, but she'd paid the price and nearly gotten killed for it. Naruto was playing dangerously here, at the end of things; he'd still only trained his taijutsu for a couple of weeks whereas Neji had been training his style since he'd been old enough to start.

"Of course I am," said Naruto. He shifted into a stance that Neji recognised all too well. It was his stance.

Neji clenched his fists. This was an insult he could not possibly stand. "As expected of the student of the Copy-nin," he said, and he matched the stance. "Then let me instruct you on how to use it."

The Hyuuga jumped forwards, delivering a flurry of palm strikes. Naruto matched each and every one of them, loudly criticising Neji's technique as he did so.

"Your arm is too rigid."

"You should only make rapid multiple attacks while my guard is down otherwise you waste energy."

"You're still not putting enough power into it."

"You can't hit my tenketsu while I'm blocking you like this, you have to adapt and think of a new strategy."

Neji growled, and managed to finally slip past Naruto's guard with pure speed, his palm smashing into Naruto's chin. Before he could take advantage, Naruto fell back, rotating around in the air. He landed on his hands, and propelled himself off the ground, his feet on target for Neji's chest.

Neji's palms connected with the soles of Naruto's sandals, and pushed forwards, to cause Naruto to roll backwards and put some distance between them.

Was it possible that this person was an imposter? But his Byakugan had not noticed anything. And no imposter with the brains to fool the Byakugan would act and fight so differently. But surely no one could become a taijutsu master in a month-

That was, assuming he really was a master. He'd managed to hit Naruto in the jaw mere moments ago. Naruto had recovered admirably, but even so, a hit was a hit. It meant he was still faster than Naruto, and the reason Naruto was stopping his attacks was because he somehow knew how to counter his clan taijutsu-

Then it came to him.

Neji smiled as he moved into the same stance he had started the fight with.

"Oh, not that ridiculous single move stuff again," said Naruto.

Neji rushed forwards; once again, his right hand brought back to deliver his palm strike. Naruto smiled, readying himself to counter it-

But the smirk quickly faded from Naruto's face as Neji moved at the last second, delivering a kick square into Naruto's chest.

The blonde staggered back, gasping for air, and Neji seized his chance, attacking with quick jabs to seal his tenketsu. While Naruto managed to weakly fend off most of his attacks, Neji still hit several.

And then Neji completely broke through Naruto's guard with the sheer number of palm strikes he was delivering. He landed constant hit after hit, abandoning all attempts at finesse and going straight for brutality.

Naruto's battered arms went up, grabbing Neji's head with his fingers, his thumbs stabbing at his eyes.

Neji shrieked with pain, his eyelids having snapped shut as reflex, before he retained his senses and delivered a double palm strike to Naruto's chest, sending his attacker crashing back several metres.

As Naruto climbed up to his feet, Neji said nothing, but it was clear he quaked with anger. Trying to damage the eyes of a Hyuuga was an insult that made copying their taijutsu look trivial.

The blonde shook his head as he wiped some blood away that was leaking from his nostrils- the result of one too many strikes to the face. "Well you know, anything goes," he said, his grin reappearing. "I figured that'd get you to stop. So, did you see it, Neji?"

Neji ignored him. "Surrender now. I've hit enough of your tenketsu- and if we continue, I'll pay you back for trying to harm my eyes. You're nothing more than a dropout, and although you may have gotten a few lucky hits on me, you've had no chance since the moment it was decided you would be my opponent."

"You didn't answer me," said Naruto. "Didn't you realise? The moment you stopped rigidly obeying your clan's taijutsu, you started winning. What could that mean? Maybe sometimes rules-"

"Don't waste my time. Surrender or die."

"Well, I'm afraid I'm not too keen on those options," said Naruto. "I'm quite keen on winning myself, would you like to surrender?"

Neji's frown told him all he needed to know.

"Right, so you're not going to surrender. So that means if I want to win, I'd have to beat the shit out of you. Is that okay? My options now are surrendering, dying, or beating the shit out of you. Hmm…tricky choices, but I think I'm gonna go with Option C and beat the shit out of you."

Naruto rolled up the sleeves on his jacket and raised his fists again.

* * *

"Go on, Naruto's evil twin!" Ino and Kiba cheered.

"For God's sake Ino," said Sakura, her face in her hands as people started staring at them.

"Why Naruto and not Neji?" Tenten asked.

"He's not as good as I thought," said Lee.

"Who, Neji?" Sakura asked.

"No. Naruto-kun," said Lee. "I didn't see it at first, but Naruto's not quite as skilled as I thought. There's many flaws in his movements, a lot of clumsiness, it's like he thinks he's working at a different height some times. The only reason Neji hasn't capitalised on it yet is because he's unfamiliar with Naruto's taijutsu."

"So that means-"

"If Naruto-kun doesn't win soon Neji will eventually see through him," Lee said, "The longer this fight goes on, the greater chance Neji has at winning."

"Hey, pipe down in front," said Kiba. "I'm trying to watch these two beat the crap out of each other."

"Well, anyway, I think Neji-" Tenten started, only to be cut off by Sakura.

"Do you not have anything to talk about apart from Neji? Why can't you even talk about yourself or something? It's like you exist solely to fill up the third person slot in their team."

"Ah, Sakura-chan," Lee said, throwing a nervous glance towards Tenten. "You shouldn't-"

Tenten burst into tears, causing even more people to start looking at them.

* * *

In the stadium, the two genin continued to fight. It was becoming increasingly clear to the spectators to how this fight was working, Naruto had the upper edge when Neji used his taijutsu style because he somehow knew how it worked, which forced Neji to incorporate more unorthodox moves and attacks, which although would work temporarily, were eventually countered or withstood by Naruto due to Neji's own lack of familiarity with them.

The two had broken away, both bloodied and sweating. It was clear the fight had to end soon. The question was whether there'd even be a victor at this point, or whether the two would just exhaust themselves.

In silent, mutual consent, the two stepped back further, both looking away from their opponent. Naruto shook his legs off, before stretching them again, while Neji stretched his arms.

But as his arms went behind his head, Neji felt a blunt impact collide with his chest, sending him staggering back. He brought his arms down to shield and counter against the rest of Naruto's blows, but Naruto had already darted back.

"You're slowing down, Neji," Naruto grinned.

"It's over," said Neji. "I will not hold back on you any longer."

"Yeah, you keep saying stuff like that, but then when you have to actually come to putting your words into actions, you don't seem to succeed."

"Oh?" said Neji, stepping forwards. "You are in range of my divination."

The last thing Naruto thought before Neji relentlessly set upon him with the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms technique was that members of the Branch House were not supposed to know that technique, according to his father's memories.

Maybe that changed.

* * *

Naruto's right arm hung limply by his side, almost completely useless. His left was still useable, barely. He'd managed to try and avoid some of the hits, but not enough, Neji was simply too fast and powerful.

"It's over," said Neji. Despite himself, he was still shocked that Naruto was still capable of standing.

Naruto managed to laugh. By the struggling rasping sound it came out as, it was clear that doing so was hurting him. "Heh. I guess it was just too ridiculous to spend a couple of weeks training taijutsu and hoping I could bring down someone who'd trained all their life."

"That should've been obvious," said Neji. "But just one question. How did you get so much stronger in that short time period?"

"Well, I've got the knowledge of the Yondaime Hokage in my head," said Naruto.

Neji scoffed. "If you're going to tell me such nonsense, you may as well have just stayed silent."

'Come on, there has to be a way out of this. I won't let that month have been wasted effort', Naruto thought, just about making the fingers on his left hand tremble. There were his trump cards, the Kyuubi's chakra, the Tornado Fist- but they weren't worth wasting on a Chuunin Exam. Especially not against an opponent who wasn't even out to kill him, and would probably settle for humiliating him.

"Surrender. Or I beat you bloody."

Naruto grinned. He finally had it. An idea that just might work. "Go ahead."

Neji moved so fluidly it was as though he had expected it. As smoothly as a wound-up spring being released again.

His target moved; turning a little- and that was it.

The blow sent Naruto crashing back, and he nearly fell over, instead, going down onto one knee. He climbed back up, but Neji realised what he had done.

"You still took the hit," said Neji. "But you moved just by that fraction to prevent it from hitting your pressure point, knocking you out and losing the match."

Naruto grinned.

"You've already lost the match. Just accept it."

Neji moved, even faster. He'd gone around Naruto- and went for a spot on the back of his neck that would temporarily block his windpipe and cause Naruto to pass out from air loss.

Naruto just managed to move again, hopping to the side so that the blow hit him on his right shoulder.

Fortunately that arm was already out of action.

"I'll give you one last chance," said Neji. "Next time will be the last time I try and end it with one blow. After that I'll just go all out on you."

"I'm counting on it," said Naruto, as he turned around to face Neji.

"What do you gain from this?" Neji asked as he raised his hand. "What do you seek to accomplish by fighting on at this point? There will be other chances to be promoted to chuunin. Why do you struggle against your fate when the outcome is clear?"

"What other reason could there be? I want to win."

"How do you intend to do so? You can't beat me in taijutsu. You can't use any ninjutsu. And even if you were skilled enough in genjutsu to wield it at this stage, I'd see through it."

"Interesting," said Naruto. "Before you just seemed to have that attitude of "only an idiot struggles against fate", why are you so interested now?"

"You are not the same person I saw a month ago," said Neji. "That much is clear. No, even then. During the preliminaries, you had already started changing."

Somewhere, inside Naruto's head, he could feel that his father would've smiled with approval. Neji was deserving of that title of prodigy, and in time he would soon be an outstanding shinobi of Konoha. Eventually he'd probably put two and two together and realise Naruto hadn't been joking with that bit about the Yondaime.

'I'm hiding these memories for what?' Despite himself, he found his thoughts straying in the battlefield. 'To protect myself from old enemies from coming after me? In case people won't believe me? Out of some twisted revenge for no one telling me about my parents?'

Naruto let his eyes look up to the box that the Hokage and Kazekage were seated in. 'Forget that. Old man, I'll tell you everything after this.'

"I have seen your taijutsu," said Neji. "You seem to run almost entirely on muscle memory rather than actually thinking about your movements. To have trained yourself so intensively in a month to the point that could be true almost seems unbelievable."

Naruto didn't say anything, content to listen. If anything, he was still impressed by Neji's analytical skills, but then again, the Hyuuga was remarkably skilled with taijutsu himself and happened to train with Konoha's taijutsu expert.

Although Neji hadn't picked up on the slight clumsiness, as a result of…well, height issues. This was why he'd been avoiding most kicks or lunging attacks as he knew he'd probably overbalance himself.

"Your attempts to rile me earlier, criticising and imitating my skills, attacking my eyes- because you knew you still could not defeat me in an equal taijutsu battle. You are clearly intelligent enough to know when you cannot win. As such, you are clearly not a fool."

"Well, the jury's still out on that one," said Naruto. "I'm clearly not intelligent enough to figure out that I've lost this one."

"Indeed. Which is what I find so strange. Why do you fight when you know that will lose when the fight itself is near meaningless?"

"Maybe because I'm trying to prove something to you."

"That you cannot escape your fate no matter how hard you struggle against it?"

Naruto smiled. "Neji, you talk too much. Now, let me tell you something by myself. Maybe I'm still barely capable of standing, with a right arm that won't move. Or maybe, while you were talking, I've just been buying myself some time to start regaining the use of my arms-"

Neji leapt forwards, intent on sealing the fight there.

His right palm was blocked by Naruto's right arm. For Naruto's left hand held his right, raising the arm across his torso as a shield. And then he released it-seizing Neji by the shoulder, pulling him close.

Neji's free hand shot up as Naruto pulled his head back.

Naruto's forehead smashed into Neji's face as Neji's left palm struck Naruto's chest.

They broke away, staggering and swaying.

And then they finally dropped to the ground.

* * *

"I'm telling you, I'm okay, I just needed a little rest," Naruto said, trying to convince the med-nin who was trying to stop him getting him out of bed.

The boys had been stretchered out of the arena to thunderous applause. The match had been ruled a draw and thus both genin were out. Naruto was still fairly annoyed but had chosen to blame it all on Jiraiya, whose brilliant idea last night had left him with a hangover so painful he couldn't mould chakra and form his Shadow Clones.

"You were hit by the Jyuuken, you could have internal damage that may only come forwards later-"

"Hey, Neji! Did you give me any internal damage that may come forwards later?"

"No," Neji groaned from his bed. His lack of accelerated healing meant he was still too exhausted to get up.

"There you go," said Naruto.

The med-nin sighed. "Fine, let me just go and consult a doctor first. Wait here."

Naruto hopped out of bed as the med-nin left. "You okay, Neji?"

Neji looked up at the ceiling, not answering for a while as he lay in silent thought. "How did you do it?" He finally said. "I was still stronger than you in taijutsu, I attacked you with my Sixty-Four Palms, and yet you still managed to prove yourself to be my equal."

"Oh? Equals now, are we?"

Neji looked over at him, his face stretched into a scowl. "I'd be a fool to think otherwise. Tactics-wise, you had me from the start. If not for my Sixty-Four Palms- hmm, I should've used Kaiten at some point-"

"Hold on," Naruto said. "You know Kaiten too?"

Neji smirked.

Naruto grinned back. "We have to have a rematch some time."

"One month from today," Neji answered immediately, evidently having already thought about it himself. "Seems fair?"

"Deal," Naruto grabbed Neji's hand and enthusiastically shook it. "Hey, I'll give you a palm reading…ah; it says you're fated to lose."

Neji rolled his eyes. "If you could escape your fate today, then I will escape mine."

Naruto smiled to himself, as the med-nin came back to release him. Sure. He probably might not get promoted, but there'd be other chances. And hell. Today had been fun. It almost didn't matter. For he'd learnt something as Neji had- the boy who'd looked down on him a month ago and would've called him worthless, had now today called him an equal and challenged him to a friendly spar- and he himself was beginning to understand his own place in the world and what the memories had shaped him into.

As he left the room, he bumped into the Hyuuga elder Hiashi. Naruto's grin grew as he excused himself, heading towards the stands.

* * *

AN: So yeah. Naruto didn't win. Well? I hate stories where Naruto becomes transformed overnight into some unbeatable super-powerful guy. That is a horrible way to write and kills all the drama and conflict. This chapter was more about trying to flesh out a friendship between the two. Something else that bothers me about those typical super Naruto fics is that he never has any "real" friends, only people who are bashed or villainised or people who virtually worship every word that come out of his mouth. So instead, Naruto draws the fight and gains a lot more respect from Neji than he ever did.

But this isn't a lecture on how to write good fics. Anyone who wants one of those, check out the guide I recently wrote.

As for why it's been taking me so long to update as my last big one was back in January, well, I underestimated how much of a bitch uni can be. I have a break coming up and I'll try again, most next chapters are about half-finished at most, so we'll see.

EDIT: Okay, based on a complaint, I better explain a fourth wall joke. Jeez, people complained about me mentioning Kakashi was breaking the fourth wall a few chapters ago, now I need to say so when I do else I run the risk of making people look weird.

Okay, the reason why Sakura makes Tenten burst into tears, is a simple joke based on how Kishimoto has said she was never really given that much depth due to her being created solely to fill up the third slot on Lee and Neji's team. If you noticed, every line of dialogue Tenten had in this chapter was about Neji in some way. I was originally going to make Sakura say something like "talk about yourself, like why you don't have a family name", but I was worried that'd make the joke too obvious. So...yeah. It'll probably never be mentioned again, like the Uzukaze Minruto fiasco.

EDIT...again: Since some people apparently can not bear the idea of Naruto not winning, lemme make a point to you. Canon Naruto still got fucked by Neji till he used the Kyuubi's chakra. He didn't beat Neji on his own. And even though he won, what did that really accomplish? People still made fun of him, he didn't make Chuunin, he didn't move onto the next round. He didn't even really get Neji's respect for a while even though he changed his entire mode of thinking. Also, what really is more ninja-like? Showing off your most powerful attack to beat some kid in a tournament or keeping it hidden and not showing it off to the numerous foreign ninja so you can keep it for when you really need it ?

If you're looking for a fic where Naruto fucks around super-strong beating everyone with ease, no. I don't care what that one guy said, there is no real conflict or drama in such a story. Have you ever read a real life fiction story that's all about this guy who gets superpowers and has no troubles with anything any more because he's so strong there's no threat at all and the drama comes from people who knew him before "reacting to his powers"? What a load.

And Jesus Christ. Do you think that I'm going to have every fight as a draw or a loss from now on? Of course he's still going to win fights. I'm just not gonna tell you which ones because I don't want you to know. You know, it adds a little tension because the reader doesn't know what to expect.

Also, to the guy who complained that this wasn't anything like jbern's fic, well, sadly I have to reply to you here because you've disabled private messaging. Oh yeah, it's not like that Harry ever lost tournament rounds or made mistakes...oh...wait... and besides, that point aside, why the fuck would I want to make this a carbon copy of someone else's fic just set in a different fandom?


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